[media-credit name=”William Woody, Special to the Post. ” align=”alignright” width=”270″][/media-credit] Robert Dewey[2] speaks to the media moments after being released from the Colorado Department of Corrections in April 2012 after DNA evidence revealed he was wrongly convicted of murdering a woman.

The colorado House gave initial approval this morning to a bill that compensates those who have been wrongfully convicted and incarcerated.

“This is an American bill, this is a Colorado bill,” said Rep. Dan Pabon[4], D-Denver.

Pabon and Rep. Angela Williams[5], D-Denver, introduced the bill after learning of the plight of Robert Dewey, who was released last year from prison after DNA exonerated him of the 1994 murder and sexual assault of a Palisade woman. The new evidence led to the arrest of another man with no connection to Dewey.

“I have no future without this bill,” Dewey said, the day the bill was debated in a House committee.

“He should be compensated by his government,” Rep. Jared Wright[6], R-Fruita, said Monday.

The bill creates a program that provides $70,000 for each year incarcerated, plus an additional $25,000 for each year he or she served on parole and $50,000 for each year he or she was incarcerated and awaited execution. It also provides tuition waivers at state colleges if the person served at least three years